DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 04/28/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 04/28/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that “As shown in Arutinov and highlighted in the Office Action, more than one laser pulse is directed as a point on the sacrificial layer” (Page 8 of applicant’s remarks filed 04/28/2026). However, Paragraph 64 of Arutinov additionally teaches that the use of a single laser beam, which is shaped to effectively profile the same intensity profile on the donor layer as the two pulses, is an acceptable alternative. Paragraph 49 of Arutinov also teaches that two coinciding pulses and/or a spiked intensity profile may produce a thick jet branching into a thin jet, which indicates that a single spiked intensity profile can be used instead of two pulses.
Applicant further argues that “the differences in intensity between I1 and I2 would not provide a uniform ejection of the solder paste” (Page 9 of applicant’s remarks filed 04/28/2026). However, the applicant’s specifications have not disclosed any relationship between the intensity distribution of the laser and the uniform jetting of the solder paste. Page 8 of the applicant’s specifications filed 07/09/2021 teaches that the “thin sacrificial layer efficiently transforms the absorbed laser energy into thrust, which propels the jet of solder paste uniformly in the forward direction over a substantial distance” and that “the use of sacrificial layer 40 in donor sheet 26 ensures efficient, uniform jetting of the solder paste in donor film 36. In the absence of the sacrificial layer, the large size of particles 38 in the solder paste would cause scattering and nonuniform absorption of the laser energy, and the resulting jets of solder paste could consequently be unstable” (Page 8 Lines 4-18 of applicant’s specifications filed 07/09/2021). Thus, the uniform jetting of the solder paste is tied to the structure of the sacrificial layer and not the intensity distribution of the laser. The applicant’s contention that requiring the laser intensity be a Gaussian intensity profile to achieve function is not supported by the applicant’s specification. Said specification does not appear to specify any intensity distribution of the laser as being required to facilitate said uniform jetting. Additionally, the applicant has not sufficiently specified what constitutes a “uniform jetting”, such as to exclude the prior art’s taught intensity distribution. One of ordinary skill in the art would consider the term “uniform jetting”, in relation to a viscoelastic jet, to reasonably include any of: the ejection velocity of the jetting, the directionality of the jetting, the jet size, or the droplet uniformity. The applicant’s disclosure does not clarify which, if any, of these measurements are being used to determine if the jetting is uniform. As such, the examiner believes that the prior art teaches sufficient structure to perform “uniform jetting”.
Applicant’s other arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 and 19 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. A new rejection has been made over ARUTINOV (US 20220009247 A1) in view of Delrot (US 20180371389 A1), KOTLER (US 20180090314 A1), and ZHANG (US 20200215633 A1).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-6, 9-12, 15-21, 23, and 27-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 1, the term “uniformly ejected” is vague and unclear. One of ordinary skill in the art would be unclear what measurements are being used to determine whether a viscoelastic jet of solder paste is being “uniformly ejected” or not. Applicant’s specifications filed 07/09/2021 further do not properly disclose any definition of the term “uniformly ejected’, merely that “The use of sacrificial layer 40 in donor sheet 26 ensures efficient, uniform jetting of the solder paste in donor film 36. In the absence of the sacrificial layer, the large size of particles 38 in the solder paste would cause scattering and nonuniform absorption of the laser energy, and the resulting jets of solder paste could consequently be unstable” (Page 8 Lines 4-18 of applicant’s specifications filed 07/09/2021). One of ordinary skill in the art would consider the term “uniform jetting”, in relation to a viscoelastic jet, to reasonably include any of: the ejection velocity of the jetting, the directionality of the jetting, the jet size, or the droplet uniformity. The applicant’s disclosure does not clarify which, if any, of these measurements are being used to determine if the jetting is uniform. Claim 19 is rejected for similar reasons to claim 1.
Claims 2-6, 9-12, 15-18, 20-21, 23, 27-30 are rejected upon their dependency on one or more of the above claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 9-12, 15-19, 23, and 27-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ARUTINOV (US 20220009247 A1) in view of Delrot (US 20180371389 A1), KOTLER (US 20180090314 A1), and ZHANG (US 20200215633 A1).
Regarding claim 1, ARUTINOV (US 20220009247 A1) teaches a method for fabrication, comprising:
providing a donor sheet (Figure 1, donor substrate 11) comprising:
a donor substrate (carrier part 11c), which is transparent in a specified spectral range and has opposing first and second surfaces (Paragraph 23, carrier part 11c of the donor substrate is transparent to the laser pulses);
a sacrificial layer (paragraph 23, “sacrificial layer”), which absorbs optical radiation within the specified spectral range and is disposed over the first surface of the donor substrate (Paragraph 23, energy is deposited in a sacrificial layer positioned between donor material 11m and donor carrier 11c); and
a donor film (donor material 11m), which comprises a solder paste (Paragraph 47, donor material 11m comprises a conductive material which comprises solder paste) and is disposed over the sacrificial layer on the donor substrate (Paragraph 23, sacrificial layer is positioned between donor material 11m and donor carrier 11c);
positioning the donor sheet so that the donor film is in proximity to a target location on an acceptor substrate (Figure 1 Paragraph 18, acceptor substrate 12 is arranged at a transfer distance from the donor substrate 11),
wherein the acceptor substrate is an electronic circuit board (Paragraph 47, directed to form an electric circuit by printing circuit lines on the acceptor substrate 12);
directing only one pulsed laser beam (Paragraph 56, a single picosecond pulse is used; Paragraph 64, a single pulse which is shaped to effectively perform the same intensity profile on the donor layer as two pulses is an acceptable alternative to using two lasers; Figures 3C Paragraph 49, a spiked intensity profile is used to provide a thick jet branching into a thin jet) in the specified spectral range to pass through the second surface of the donor substrate and impinge on a point on the sacrificial layer (Figure 1 Paragraphs 23 and 28, pulsed laser beam L1 is directed through the carrier part 11c to impinge onto the sacrificial layer) with a pulse energy and spot size selected so as to ablate the sacrificial layer (Paragraph 23, the sacrificial layer is evaporated and/or disintegrated by the laser to initiate the transfer; Paragraph 34, intensity of each spot is controlled based on measurement of the resulting droplet; Paragraph 61, laser beam L1 has a spot size between 30 – 300 micrometers or more), thus causing a viscoelastic jet of the solder paste to be uniformly ejected (Paragraph 42, variation in droplet size Dx can be minimized by controlling material flow through the extended jet; Paragraph 35, plurality of parameters are adjusted such as to control the droplet size Dx; Paragraph 3, achieving a uniform layer is desired; would have been obvious to have adjusted the plurality of laser parameters as necessary such as to achieve a uniform ejection; see 112b rejection above for “uniformly ejected”) from the donor film (Figure 1 Paragraphs 18-19, a jet is ejected from the donor material 11m as a result of the deposit of energy) and to deposit, at the target location on the acceptor substrate, a dot (Paragraph 25, a droplet Jd of the donor material is deposited on the acceptor substrate) having a diameter (Paragraph 43, size of droplet Jd is less than fifty micrometers) less than the spot size of the laser beam (Paragraph 61, first spot size Ds1 of laser pulse L1 has a spot size between thirty and three hundred micrometers, or more), and wherein only the pulsed laser beam is directed to the point when the sacrificial layer is ablated (Figure 4B Paragraph 55, alternatively to the splitting beam paths shown in Figure 4A the system comprises a beam shaper “SH” to help achieve the desired intensity profile “Ixy” advantageously using a relatively simple beam path using a single pulse).
While ARUTINOV fails to explicitly teach of “directing the pulsed laser beam comprises directing one or more pulses to impinge on the sacrificial layer with an energy greater than 200 uJ per pulse, wherein the one or more pulses have a duration between 10 ns and 5 us per pulse”, ARUTINOV does teach that the intensity of the laser spot and pulse length are controlled during operation as a function of desired droplet size (ARUTINOV Paragraphs 34-35), and further that the laser pulse are nanosecond pulses (ARUTINOV Paragraph 56) and that energy of a single pulse of the laser beam should be at a level such that it not only heats the donor but also causes some damage to the interface of the donor carrier but does not extend beyond 10% of the carrier thickness into the carrier (ARUTINOV Paragraph 57). ARUTINOV further teaches that it is desirable to reduce relative variation in droplet size and to have the droplet size be consistently controlled (ARUTINOV Paragraph 42). Delrot (US 20180371389 A1) teaches a method for laser-induced forward transfer wherein a laser beam vaporizes part of a light-absorbing film 301 positioned between the liquid 300 and transparent solid material 302 such as to generate a high-velocity liquid jet to deposit a droplet onto a supporting substrate (Delrot Figure 3 Paragraph 24), wherein said laser beam has a pulse energy between 0.5uJ and 300uJ and has a pulse width of 5ns to 2us (Delrot Paragraph 17). Since these laser parameter ranges of Delrot, a known method of laser-induced forward transfer, are known in the art and ARUTINOV teaches that the intensity of the laser spot and pulse length are controlled during processing, it would thus be obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify ARUTINOV so that “directing the pulsed laser beam comprises directing one or more pulses to impinge on the sacrificial layer with an energy greater than 200 uJ per pulse, wherein the one or more pulses have a duration between 10 ns and 5 us per pulse”, as discovering an optimal value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art as stated by MPEP 2144.05(II).
ARUTINOV as modified further fails to explicitly teach “wherein the specified spectral range comprises an infrared wavelength range. However, KOTLER (US 20180090314 A1) teaches that the use of a laser with 915 nm (KOTLER Paragraph 22) is known in the art to be sufficient for performing a LIFT process to send donor material such as solder paste toward the substrate (KOTLER Paragraph 20) including a formation of a jet (Figure 3 KOTLER). Thus, it would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with KOTLER and have the laser have an infrared wavelength. Thus would be done as such a wavelength is known in the art to be used for delivering solder paste as donor material and is known in the art to be sufficient for the formation of a jet (KOTLER Paragraph 22).
The Office further notes that the formation of droplets from the film is known in the art to be dependent on the laser beam wavelength as evidenced by Paragraph 13 of GUILLEMOT (US 20170320263 A1).
ARUTINOV as modified fails to explicitly teach:
wherein the solder paste comprises metal particles having a diameter greater than 10 um
ZHANG (US 20200215633 A1) teaches a laser induced forward transfer device, wherein:
the solder paste comprises metal particles having a diameter greater than 10 um (Paragraph 42, the solder paste film is made of No. 5-7 powder solder paste with the particle size ranging from 2um - 25um).
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with ZHANG and used solder paste having metal particles having a diameter greater than 10um. This would have been done as ARUTINOV and Zhang both use a laser LIFT method to deposit solder paste onto a PCB (ARUTINOV Paragraph 47; ZHANG Paragraph 41) and Zhang finds that solder paste containing at least some metal particles having a diameter greater than 10um is desirable for the PCB printing (ZHANG Paragraphs 41-42).
Regarding claim 4, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 1.
Delrot (US 20180371389 A1) further teaches:
the sacrificial layer comprises a metal film (Paragraph 17, solid-state light-absorbing film is a metal).
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with Delrot and had the sacrificial layer comprise a metal film. This would have been done to provide a suitable material for the sacrificial layer for the purpose of facilitate transferring a droplet of material to the acceptor substrate.
Regarding claim 9, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein
the diameter of the dot formed by the viscoelastic jet is less than 200 um (Paragraph 43, size of droplet Jd is less than fifty micrometers).
Regarding claim 10, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein
positioning the donor sheet comprises holding the donor film at a distance of at least 200 um from a surface of the acceptor substrate (Paragraph 43, transfer distance between the donor substrate 11 and acceptor 12 is more than two hundred micrometers).
Regarding claim 11, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 11, wherein
the distance is at least 500 um (Paragraph 43, transfer distance between the donor substrate 11 and acceptor 12 is more than two hundred micrometers and can be increased to even up to 500 hundred meters or more).
Regarding claim 12, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 1.
KOTLER further teaches:
directing the pulsed laser beam comprises directing infrared laser radiation to impinge on the sacrificial layer (Paragraph 38, optics 44 focuses each beam 43 through a top surface 59 of the substrate 60 to impinge upon a surface 69 of the donor film 62; Paragraph 22, laser has an infrared wavelength of 915nm).
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with KOTLER and have the laser have an infrared wavelength. Thus would be done as such a wavelength is known in the art to be used for delivering solder paste as donor material and is known in the art to be sufficient for the formation of a jet (KOTLER Paragraph 22).
The Office further notes that the formation of droplets from the film is known in the art to be dependent on the laser beam wavelength as evidenced by Paragraph 13 of GUILLEMOT (US 20170320263 A1).
Regarding claim 15, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 11, wherein
the spot size of the laser beam impinging on the sacrificial layer is greater than 200 um (Paragraph 61, first spot size Ds1 of laser pulse L1 has a spot size between thirty and three hundred micrometers, or more), and the diameter of the dot deposited by the viscoelastic jet is less than 200 um (Paragraph 43, size of droplet Jd is less than fifty micrometers).
Regarding claim 16, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 15, wherein
the spot size of the laser beam impinging on the sacrificial layer is greater than 300 um (Paragraph 61, first spot size Ds1 of laser pulse L1 has a spot size between thirty and three hundred micrometers, or more).
Regarding claim 17, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 1.
Delrot further teaches:
directing the pulsed laser beam comprises directing an array of pulsed laser beams to impinge simultaneously at a plurality of the points on the sacrificial layer, so as to deposit a corresponding matrix of dots on the acceptor substrate (Figure 6 Paragraph 27, directing multiple light pulses to vaporize a plurality of points of the light-absorbing film leading to simultaneous generation of several high-velocity liquid jets and delivery of several subsequent droplets onto the substrate)
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with Delrot and had the pulsed laser beam direct an array of pulsed laser beams to simultaneously deposit a matrix of dots. This would have been done to allow for simultaneous generation of multiple droplets via light-actuation (Delrot Paragraph 27).
Regarding claim 18, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 17.
Delrot further teaches:
directing the array of pulsed laser beams comprises depositing a first matrix of the dots on the acceptor substrate, and then shifting the donor sheet (ARUTINOV Paragraph 58, a laser beam can be moved over a stationary surface or the donor substate and/or acceptor substrate is moved with respect to a stationary laser spot between deposits) and directing the array of the pulsed laser beams to deposit a second matrix of the dots, interleaved with the first matrix of the dots on the acceptor substrate (Figures 6-7 Paragraph 27, the pulsed laser beam deposited droplets previously deposited by the multiple light beams and the newly depositing 609 and 610 are being deposited in a shifted manner such as to interleave the first matrix of the dots on the acceptor substrate).
It would have been obvious for the same motivation as claim 17.
Regarding claim 19, ARUTINOV (US 20220009247 A1) teaches an apparatus for fabrication, comprising:
a donor sheet (Figure 1, donor substrate 11) comprising:
a donor substrate (carrier part 11c), which is transparent in a specified spectral range and has opposing first and second surfaces (Paragraph 23, carrier part 11c of the donor substrate is transparent to the laser pulses);
a sacrificial layer (paragraph 23, “sacrificial layer”), which absorbs optical radiation within the specified spectral range and is disposed over the first surface of the donor substrate (Paragraph 23, energy from the laser is deposited in a sacrificial layer positioned between donor material 11m and donor carrier 11c); and
a donor film (donor material 11m), which comprises a solder paste (Paragraph 47, donor material 11m comprises a conductive material which comprises solder paste) and is disposed over the sacrificial layer on the donor substrate (Paragraph 23, sacrificial layer is positioned between donor material 11m and donor carrier 11c),
wherein the donor sheet is positioned so that the donor film is in proximity to a target location on an acceptor substrate (Figure 1 Paragraph 18, acceptor substrate 12 is arranged at a transfer distance from the donor substrate 11),
wherein the acceptor substrate is an electronic circuit board (Paragraph 47, directed to form an electric circuit by printing circuit lines on the acceptor substrate 12)
a laser, configured to output a pulsed laser beam in the specified spectral range (Figure 4 Paragraph 51, light source is configured to impinge the donor substrate with laser pulse L1 which transmits through the carrier part 11c and is deposited on the sacrificial layer); and
an optical assembly (Figures 4A-4B Paragraph 55, beam combiner is used to direct the laser pulse L1 towards donor substrate 11), configured to direct only one of the pulsed laser beam (Paragraph 56, a single picosecond pulse is used; Paragraph 64, a single pulse which is shaped to effectively perform the same intensity profile on the donor layer as two pulses is an acceptable alternative to using two lasers; Figures 3C Paragraph 49, a spiked intensity profile is used to provide a thick jet branching into a thin jet) to pass through the second surface of the donor substrate and impinge a point on the sacrificial layer (Figure 1 Paragraphs 23 and 28, pulsed laser beam L1 is directed through the carrier part 11c to impinge onto the sacrificial layer) with a pulse energy and spot size selected so as to ablate the sacrificial layer (Paragraph 23, the sacrificial layer is evaporated and/or disintegrated by the laser to initiate the transfer; Paragraph 34, intensity of each spot is controlled based on measurement of the resulting droplet; Paragraph 61, laser beam L1 has a spot size between 30 – 300 micrometers or more), thus causing a viscoelastic jet of the solder paste to be uniformly ejected (Paragraph 42, variation in droplet size Dx can be minimized by controlling material flow through the extended jet; Paragraph 35, plurality of parameters are adjusted such as to control the droplet size Dx; Paragraph 3, achieving a uniform layer is desired; would have been obvious to have adjusted the plurality of laser parameters as necessary such as to achieve a uniform ejection; see 112b rejection above for “uniformly ejected”) from the donor film (Figure 1 Paragraphs 18-19, a jet is ejected from the donor material 11m as a result of the deposit of energy) and to deposit, at the target location on the acceptor substrate, a dot (Paragraph 25, a droplet Jd of the donor material is deposited on the acceptor substrate) having a diameter (Paragraph 43, size of droplet Jd is less than fifty micrometers) less than the spot size of the laser beam (Paragraph 61, first spot size Ds1 of laser pulse L1 has a spot size between thirty and three hundred micrometers, or more), and only the pulsed laser beam is directed to the point when the sacrificial layer is ablated (Figure 4B Paragraph 55, alternatively to the splitting beam paths shown in Figure 4A the system comprises a beam shaper “SH” to help achieve the desired intensity profile “Ixy” advantageously using a relatively simple beam path using a single pulse).
While ARUTINOV fails to explicitly teach of “directing the pulsed laser beam comprises directing one or more pulses to impinge on the sacrificial layer with an energy greater than 200 uJ per pulse, wherein the one or more pulses have a duration between 10 ns and 5 us per pulse”, ARUTINOV does teach that the intensity of the laser spot and pulse length are controlled during operation as a function of desired droplet size (ARUTINOV Paragraphs 34-35), and further that the laser pulse are nanosecond pulses (ARUTINOV Paragraph 56) and that energy of a single pulse of the laser beam should be at a level such that it not only heats the donor but also causes some damage to the interface of the donor carrier but does not extend beyond 10% of the carrier thickness into the carrier (ARUTINOV Paragraph 57). ARUTINOV further teaches that it is desirable to reduce relative variation in droplet size and to have the droplet size be consistently controlled (ARUTINOV Paragraph 42). Delrot (US 20180371389 A1) teaches a method for laser-induced forward transfer wherein a laser beam vaporizes part of a light-absorbing film 301 positioned between the liquid 300 and transparent solid material 302 such as to generate a high-velocity liquid jet to deposit a droplet onto a supporting substrate (Delrot Figure 3 Paragraph 24), wherein said laser beam has a pulse energy between 0.5uJ and 300uJ and has a pulse width of 5ns to 2us (Delrot Paragraph 17). Since these laser parameter ranges of Delrot, a known method of laser-induced forward transfer, are known in the art and ARUTINOV teaches that the intensity of the laser spot and pulse length are controlled during processing, it would thus be obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify ARUTINOV so that “directing the pulsed laser beam comprises directing one or more pulses to impinge on the sacrificial layer with an energy greater than 200 uJ per pulse, wherein the one or more pulses have a duration between 10 ns and 5 us per pulse”, as discovering an optimal value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art as stated by MPEP 2144.05(II).
ARUTINOV as modified further fails to explicitly teach “wherein the specified spectral range comprises an infrared wavelength range. However, KOTLER (US 20180090314 A1) teaches that the use of a laser with 915 nm (KOTLER Paragraph 22) is known in the art to be sufficient for performing a LIFT process to send donor material such as solder paste toward the substrate (KOTLER Paragraph 20) including a formation of a jet (Figure 3 KOTLER). Thus, it would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with KOTLER and have the laser have an infrared wavelength. Thus would be done as such a wavelength is known in the art to be used for delivering solder paste as donor material and is known in the art to be sufficient for the formation of a jet (KOTLER Paragraph 22).
The Office further notes that the formation of droplets from the film is known in the art to be dependent on the laser beam wavelength as evidenced by Paragraph 13 of GUILLEMOT (US 20170320263 A1).
ARUTINOV as modified fails to explicitly teach:
wherein the solder paste comprises metal particles having a diameter greater than 10 um
ZHANG (US 20200215633 A1) teaches a laser induced forward transfer device, wherein:
the solder paste comprises metal particles having a diameter greater than 10 um (Paragraph 42, the solder paste film is made of No. 5-7 powder solder paste with the particle size ranging from 2um - 25um).
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with ZHANG and used solder paste having metal particles having a diameter greater than 10um. This would have been done as ARUTINOV and Zhang both use a laser LIFT method to deposit solder paste onto a PCB (ARUTINOV Paragraph 47; ZHANG Paragraph 41) and Zhang finds that solder paste containing at least some metal particles having a diameter greater than 10um is desirable for the PCB printing (ZHANG Paragraphs 41-42).
Regarding claim 23, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 19, wherein:
the donor sheet is positioned at a distance of at least 200 um from a surface of the acceptor substrate (Paragraph 43, transfer distance between the donor substrate 11 and acceptor 12 is more than two hundred micrometers).
Regarding claim 27, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 19, wherein:
the spot size of the laser beam impinging on the sacrificial layer is greater than 200 um (Paragraph 61, first spot size Ds1 of laser pulse L1 has a spot size between thirty and three hundred micrometers, or more), and the diameter of the solder dot deposited by the viscoelastic jet is less than 200 um (Paragraph 43, size of droplet Jd is less than fifty micrometers).
Regarding claim 28, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 27, wherein:
the spot size of the laser beam impinging on the sacrificial layer is greater than 300 um (Paragraph 61, first spot size Ds1 of laser pulse L1 has a spot size between thirty and three hundred micrometers, or more).
Regarding claim 29, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 19.
Delrot (US 20180371389 A1) further teaches:
the optical assembly is configured to direct an array of pulsed laser beams to impinge simultaneously at a plurality of the points on the sacrificial layer, so as to deposit a corresponding matrix of dots on the acceptor substrate (Figure 6 Paragraph 27, directing multiple light pulses to vaporize parts of the light-absorbing film leading to simultaneous generation of several high-velocity liquid jets and delivery of several subsequent droplets onto the substrate)
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with Delrot and had the pulsed laser beam direct an array of pulsed laser beams to simultaneously deposit a matrix of dots. This would have been done to allow for simultaneous generation of multiple droplets via light-actuation (Delrot Paragraph 27).
Regarding claim 30, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 29.
Delrot (US 20180371389 A1) further teaches:
the array of pulsed laser beams causes a first matrix of the dots to be deposited on the acceptor substrate, after which the donor sheet is shifted (ARUTINOV Paragraph 58, a laser beam can be moved over a stationary surface or the donor substate and/or acceptor substrate is moved with respect to a stationary laser spot between deposits), and the optical assembly directs the array of the pulsed laser beams to deposit a second matrix of the dots, interleaved with the first matrix of the dots on the acceptor substrate (Figures 6-7 Paragraph 27, the pulsed laser beam deposited droplets previously deposited by the multiple light beams and the newly depositing 609 and 610 are being deposited in a shifted manner such as to interleave the first matrix of the dots on the acceptor substrate).
It would have been obvious for the same motivation as claim 17.
Claim(s) 2-3 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ARUTINOV (US 20220009247 A1) in view of Delrot (US 20180371389 A1), KOTLER (US 20180090314 A1), and ZHANG (US 20200215633 A1) as applied to claims 1 and 19 above respectively, and further in view of Merdan (US 6440503 B1).
Regarding claim 2, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 1.
ARUTINOV as modified fails to teach:
the donor substrate comprises a polymer foil.
Merdan (US 6440503 B1) teaches a laser deposition method, wherein:
the donor substrate comprises a polymer foil (Column 6 Lines 22-32, substrate 34 is comprised of a material which is substantially transparent to the laser beam as is made of polyethylene).
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with Merdan and have the donor substrate be made of polyethylene. This would have been done to provide a suitable material transparent to the laser beam and suitable for carrying the sacrificial layer and projectile layer (Merdan Column 3 Lines 49-58).
Regarding claim 3, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 2.
Merdan further teaches:
the polymer foil has a thermal conductivity K< 0.5 W/m*K (Column 6 Lines 22-32, substrate 34 is comprised of a material which is substantially transparent to the laser beam as is made of polypropylene).
It would have been obvious for the same motivation as claim 2.
Polypropylene is known in the art to have a thermal conductivity of less than 0.5 W/m*K as evidenced by Page 14 of Patti Antonella, Thermal Conductivity of Polypropylene-Based Materials, 2019.
Regarding claim 20, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 19.
ARUTINOV as modified fails to teach:
the donor substrate comprises a polymer foil, and wherein the polymer foil has a thermal conductivity K< 0.5 W/m*K
Merdan (US 6440503 B1) teaches a laser deposition method, wherein:
the donor substrate comprises a polymer foil (Column 6 Lines 22-32, substrate 34 is comprised of a material which is substantially transparent to the laser beam as is made of polyethylene), and wherein the polymer foil has a thermal conductivity K< 0.5 W/m*K (Column 6 Lines 22-32, substrate 34 is comprised of a material which is substantially transparent to the laser beam as is made of polypropylene).
Polypropylene is known in the art to have a thermal conductivity of less than 0.5 W/m*K as evidenced by Page 14 of Patti Antonella, Thermal Conductivity of Polypropylene-Based Materials, 2019.
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with Merdan and have the donor substrate be made of polyethylene. This would have been done to provide a suitable material transparent to the laser beam and suitable for carrying the sacrificial layer and projectile layer (Merdan Column 3 Lines 49-58).
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ARUTINOV (US 20220009247 A1) in view of Delrot (US 20180371389 A1), KOTLER (US 20180090314 A1), and ZHANG (US 20200215633 A1) as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of SANDSTROM (US 20180015671 A1) and Lee (US 20140312546 A1).
Regarding claim 5, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 4.
ARUTINOV as modified fails to teach:
the donor sheet comprises a polymeric protective layer between the metal film and the donor film
SANDSTROM (US 20180015671 A1) teaches a laser-induced forward transfer method, wherein:
the donor sheet comprises a protective layer between the metal film and the donor film (Paragraph 47, target substrate includes a surface active layer located between explosive layer 120 and donor material 102).
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with SANDSTROM and have the donor sheet comprise a protective layer between the metal film and the donor film. This would have been done to assist adhesion between the layers of the target substrate and also aid in storage and rolling of the target substrate (SANDSTROM Paragraph 47).
ARUTINOV as modified with SANDSTROM does not explicitly teach:
a polymeric protective layer
Lee (US 20140312546 A1) teaches a metal sheeting holding device, wherein:
a polymeric protective layer (Paragraph 20, adhesive layer may include an adhesive polymer)
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with Lee and had the protective layer include an adhesive polymer. Having adhesive layers be made of polymers is well known in the art and would have been used for its standardized and predictable results.
Claim(s) 6 and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ARUTINOV (US 20220009247 A1) in view of Delrot (US 20180371389 A1), KOTLER (US 20180090314 A1), and ZHANG (US 20200215633 A1) as applied to claims 4 and 19 above respectively, and further in view of GUILLEMOT (US 20170368822 A1).
Regarding claim 6, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 4.
Delrot further teaches:
the metal film has a thickness less than 100 nm (Paragraph 17, thickness of the light-absorbing layer is 10nm-10um)
It would have been obvious for the same motivation as claim 4.
ARUTINOV as modified fails to explicitly teach:
and comprises a metal selected from a group consisting of titanium, tungsten, chromium and molybdenum.
GUILLEMOT (US 20170368822 A1) teaches a laser printing method, wherein:
and comprises a metal selected from a group consisting of titanium (Paragraph 54, absorbent layer 62 is made of titanium), tungsten, chromium and molybdenum.
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with GUILLEMOT and had the metal film be comprised of titanium. This would have been done to provide a suitable material for producing a jet of the material toward the acceptor substrate (GUILLEMOT Paragraphs 54-56).
Regarding claim 21, ARUTINOV as modified teaches the method according to claim 19.
Delrot (US 20180371389 A1) further teaches:
the sacrificial layer comprises a metal film (Paragraph 17, solid-state light-absorbing film is a metal), and wherein the metal film has a thickness less than 100 nm (Paragraph 17, thickness of the light-absorbing layer is 10nm-10um)
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with Delrot and had the sacrificial layer comprise a metal film. This would have been done to provide a suitable material for the sacrificial layer for the purpose of facilitate transferring a droplet of material to the acceptor substrate.
ARUTINOV as modified fails to teach:
the metal film comprises a metal selected from a group consisting of titanium, tungsten, chromium and molybdenum.
GUILLEMOT (US 20170368822 A1) teaches a laser printing method, wherein:
the metal film comprises a metal selected from a group consisting of titanium (Paragraph 54, absorbent layer 62 is made of titanium), tungsten, chromium and molybdenum.
It would have thus been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified ARUTINOV with GUILLEMOT and had the metal film be comprised of titanium. This would have been done to provide a suitable material for producing a jet of the material toward the acceptor substrate (GUILLEMOT Paragraphs 54-56).
Conclusion
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/F.J.W./Examiner, Art Unit 3761
/WOODY A LEE JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761
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